Coastal Marine Biolabs (CMB) offers unique, research-based educational programs for high school students. CMB’s interdisciplinary programs complement and expand the academic knowledge that students’ derive from their formal education, and provide opportunities for them to apply this knowledge in pursuit of contemporary research questions.
Wendi Butler and Darcy Perez have been working with CMB Co-founders, Dr. Ralph Imondi and Dr. Linda Santschi, to facilitate the involvement of Ventura Unified School District teachers/students in the International Barcode of Life Project (iBOL) - the largest biodiversity genomics project ever undertaken. Over the last two years, more than 200 students (including many Foothill students!) representing 18 California cities have joined a scientific campaign to create a DNA barcode library for the fish and invertebrate species that inhabit the waters of the Channel Islands National Park and Marine Sanctuary.
DNA barcoding is a digital identification system that uses a short segment of
a mitochondrial reference gene to distinguish animal species. Through their participation in the project, students will assist in the identification of target marine specimens and apply accessible and straightforward molecular biology-based techniques and bioinformatics routines to generate reference DNA barcodes (e.g. genomic DNA extraction, gel electrophoresis, polymerase chain reaction, spin column purification of PCR amplicons, sequence editing, etc.). Importantly, these high school students receive authorship for their contribution of genetic data to this landmark scientific initiative. Real science – done by high school kids!!
For further information, check out Mrs. Perez's Biotechnology page.
Darcy Perez: Darcy.Perez@venturausd.org (805) 289-0023 ext. 2107
